Delco Democrats will gather tonight to pick their candidate for the special election for the now-vacant 161st District state House seat given up by Joe Hackett.
My money is on Leanne Krueger-Braneky, the very sharp small business expert who lost to Hackett last November.
In the meantime, more than a couple eyebrows were raised at the choice of the Delco GOP for the seat.
Republicans last week endorsed Aston labor leader Paul Mullen, president of the Delaware County AFL-CIO and business manager of IBEW 654.
Some in the GOP are perplexed - if not downright outraged - at the choice. We've already had several letters to the editor loudly offering their dismay with the pick.
For one, Mullen is a longtime labor leader, a position not always closely aligned with Republicans.
He was a backer of Joe Sestak against Pat Toomey, and maybe more importantly, he was part of the team that lined up behind John Kane in his ugly slugfest with Tom McGarrigle for the vacant 26th District state Senate seat last fall.
I wonder if the local Republicans asked McGarrigle, who emerged bruised but victorious in that rough-and-tumble contest, what he thought of Mullen.
Mullen had some less than flattering things to say about McGarrigle during that campaign, and was at the center of one spat that involved a union member and his spouse who appeared in an ad boosting McGarrigle and whether the union put any heat on them for their stance.
Mullen may wind up facing a third-party challenge from within his own party, if not in the special election, maybe in the next primary.
And if all that is not enough, try this on for size. The state Bureau of Elections is telling us this special election could wind up costing as much as $70,000.
Ouch.
Too bad Joe Hackett didn't come to the epiphany that his heart was back in Delco - in law enforcement - last fall, or at least in time to have the special election lined up with the spring primary.
Instead, we'll have a special election on Aug. 4.
And we'll find out who the Dems will be running for the seat tonight.
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